Bobby Beathard's replacements set stage for Hollywood finish

Tuesday

Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves took a cue from a replacements team slapped together by incoming Hall of Famer Bobby Beathard.

"Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever."

— Fictional Washington Sentinels quarterback Shane Falco in the huddle in his final game in "The Replacements"

Bobby Beathard made a career of filling teams with memorable players. One of his Super Bowl teams kept a season afloat with players time forgot.

The NFL got hit with a strike two games into the 1987 season. Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced the games would go on with replacements. Beathard was in for one of the busiest weeks of his working life.

Washington was the only team with no regular player crossing a picket line. Beathard was responsible for rounding up an entire squad on the fly.

“We went at the whole thing very aggressively,” said Beathard, who was in his 10th year as Washington's general manager. “Looking back and hearing some teams and even some friends talk about it, they didn’t go at it aggressively. They either thought the strike would end soon or it wasn’t that big a deal.”

Then-Giants defensive coordinator Bill Belichick captured the flavor of the scramble when he talked to reporters about an impending replacement game against Washington:

"I don't think we have time to put in even some of the basic things," he said. "And some of them are not exactly in top condition."

Washington's replacements, rounded up under the direction of Beathard and his assistant Charley Casserly, looked to be in good shape in a 38-12 road rout of the Giants.

Beathard had chased every lead, starting with players who had been cut after spending time in recent training camp.

The strike lasted three weeks. The Redskins went 3-0, capped by a win over a Dallas team featuring most of its regulars. After the Dallas game, Washington's replacements carried head coach Joe Gibbs off the field, the same treatment head coach Jimmy McGinty (played by Gene Hackman) got in the movie — "The Replacements" — after a goodbye game against Dallas.

In the movie, the Washington Sentinels find washed-up Ohio State quarterback Shane Falco (played by Keanu Reeves) scraping barnacles off boats. Falco's comeback ends with a Monday night game against Dallas, during which announcer John Madden plays himself. In real life, Madden blocked for Beathard at Cal Poly.

On Beathard's replacement team, Anthony Allen had 255 receiving yards against the Rams. Running back Lionel Vital ran for 346 yards across the three games.

Beathard, Casserly and Gibbs attended a dinner party thrown for the replacements before they were sent away.

"This group had an unusual feeling for itself," Gibbs said. "They felt real camaraderie. They kept good senses of humor. It was a different set of characters."

In the movie, one Washington replacement is a convicted drug dealer. A striking lineman bashes in the window of a bus full of strike breakers. McGinty warms to his team of ragtag temps.

Casserly recalls Gibbs' final pep talk to his replacements" "You guys came back to prove you can play, right? What better stage? Monday Night Football, going against their great players. You've been waiting all your lives for this chance."

One of the real replacements, Craig McEwen, recalled the 13-7 win at Dallas as "the most exciting game of my life."

Gibbs made it hard on Beathard by insisting that none of the regulars cross the lines, lest there be disunity when they returned. So many had to be brought in.

The Redskins were 4-1 when the regulars came back. They wound up in Super Bowl XXII, where they clobbered the Broncos 42-10.

Each replacement player received a Super Bowl winners share of $36,000. Thirty years later, the replacements were flown to Washington and given Super Bowl rings.

Perhaps some of them will be in Canton when Beathard goes into the Hall of Fame.

Reach Steve at 330-580-8347 or

steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

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